


Redheads in Whitestone

by incomprehensiblemetaphor



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 09:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7710748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incomprehensiblemetaphor/pseuds/incomprehensiblemetaphor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pike stays behind in Whitestone to help after the Chroma Conclave destroys Emon and Gilmore rolls a nat20 on Insight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Redheads in Whitestone

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this initially on the back of bits of receipt paper at work because I couldn't get the first few lines out of my head. Hopefully I've fixed most of the glaring errors (both in spelling/grammar and characterization), but let me know if I've overlooked anything!

There are a lot of redheads in Whitestone.

Pike first notices it when she gets her first half moment to lift up her head and take stock of what happened. Somehow, they’re all relatively okay. Somehow, Gilmore has taken a step back from death’s door. Somehow, Pike finds herself holding sharp, shattered pieces of life together while the rest of Vox Machina tries to find some sort of glue for them. Again. 

And somehow, the walk that she takes through the gray morning brings her to the Sun Tree at the center of the city. Pike doesn’t know a lot about plants, but Keyleth does, and Keyleth says that the tree is good people. Er, flora. The fact that it’s even there, stretching very much alive branches over the square, is close enough to the druid’s presence that Pike can’t help but feel her mouth settle into the smallest of smiles. 

And then the smile stretches wider whens she sees a flash of copper hair next to the trunk. Pike’s halfway there before the figure turns her head and the gnome realizes that her nose is wrong and her clothes blend into the stone street. The smile slips from her face and she mentally shakes herself. She would have known if Keyleth had come through the Sun Tree’s trunk. The druid’s magic always makes the air smell like lightning is just around the corner. It also leaves the same feeling in the center of Pike’s chest, but she isn’t really sure if that’s from the magic or something else. 

Her heart just isn’t in the walk after that. There’s more that she can be doing up at the castle, helping Cassandra deal with the refugees and maybe even getting some people back on their feet and to work. A lot of them have seemed a bit lost since leaving Emon, and she can’t really blame them. Maybe having something to focus on will help. And maybe she’s trying to take her own advice.

And then there’s Gilmore, who she checks on first. He’s got a candle lit beside him, a book on his lap that he’s clearly not reading, and glasses that look like something Percy would wear balanced so far down on his nose that she can’t imagine he’s actually looking through them. “Pike!” He closes the book and shifts a little bit when she enters the room.

“How are you feeling?” She settles down on a cushion next to him, fingers tingling a bit with some healing magic in case there’s something that she can do. 

“I’ll be right as rain in just a few days. You don’t need to worry about me.” 

“That’s why I’m here.” Pike tries to offer a smile, but she doesn’t need to see Gilmore’s perpetual smirk slip to know that it falls flat.

“You aren’t wearing yourself out, are you?”

She shakes her head quickly. “No, nothing like that.” She’s tired, but after weeks of restoring the temple of Sarenrae she’s used to that. It’s actually what she saw on the way back to the castle that has her bent a bit off center. She never noticed it before, but red hair is everywhere in Whitestone, and all of it too dark or too light, too short or bushy or not adorned with antlers or just _wrong._  

Gilmore levels her with a long look that manages to cut deep even with the last bits of feverish glaze to his eyes. 

“I’ll be fine. It’s just been a long few days.”

“No doubt. And there are sure to be quite a few more ahead.” 

Pike nods in agreement.

“So maybe don’t waste your chance next time you get it.”

“What?”

The smirk replaces the solemn look that had settled onto his features. “I don’t know who it is that you’re missing, but if it’s someone that I know, you’ll do well to make the most of it the next time they’re here. When you’re chasing dragons, you don’t usually get to put things off ’til tomorrow.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Gilmore.” And she means it. 

“Always happy to be of service. Now go, I’m sure someone needs you more than I.” 

Pike gives him another smile, this one genuine, and leaves him to the book that he wasn’t reading. 

She can see the Sun Tree out of some of the windows that she passes as she makes her rounds. The branches that Keyleth brought back to life scrape the clouds and Pike decides to keep an eye on them. She’ll do what she can here, and she’ll be ready for the air to smell like lightning and for Whitestone to welcome the perfect shade of red hair.


End file.
